ORLG220 Tutorial: Decibel:

What is it and how to use it???

For the purpose of this tutorial, we are mainly calculating the dB SPL as a measure of sound
pressure level.

Sound, Logarithms and decibels:

Huge acoustical changes in measurable physical parameters (e.g. pressure and power)
correspond to relatively small changes in perceived loudness. Using a linear scale becomes
impractical (large variations in number gives little guide to the perceived sound).

The threshold of hearing has a pressure set at: 20 µPa OR 0.00002 Pa and the loudest at 200Pa.
There is an increase in amplitude of 10,000,000 times!

This figure shows that at:

 Small sound pressure average values: very large changes in perceived loudness
occurring for small changes in pressure.
 Large sound pressure average values: very small changes in perceived loudness occur
for large changes in pressure.

Conclusion: perceptually, we are sensitive to small changes when the stimulus is small, but
when the stimulus is large, we are only sensitive to large changes. Use a log!
 ORLG220 Tutorial: Decibel:
What is it and how to use it???

But what is log and how do we use it with sound pressure?

y= x^n ˂=˃ n= logx(Y)

For the sake of our study, we are only considering the log at base 10:

Let’s consider the number: 100000. It can be expressed as: 10x10x10x10x10 or 10^5

5 becomes the index and 10 is now the base

We will now express numbers from 0 to 10000000 as 1 to 7.

Log will be used to the base 10 in SPL measures; Y will be a ratio of pressures. A ratio shows
how many times the nominator is stronger or weaker than the denominator.

**Other base values can be used in log: ex. log636 =2. The exponential form: 62=36

We can say:

y= 10^n ˂=˃ n= log10(Y) where log 10 is also written as simply log. n is the index.

Remember: log(1)=0 (1 = 10^0).

Knowing that, let’s now set the 0 point of our log scale, and for that we need to arrange it in a
ratio, where the denominator is a reference number corresponding to the minimal pressure
level required to trigger a sensation.

The values of log (x) when x is between 0 and 1 is negative. What happens if we get negative
sound intensity level? This means that we are below the average of normal hearing. There is a
pressure value not strong enough to set the tympanic membrane in vibration.

Logarithmic scale proves useful because it has intervals nearly close to the perceived changes
in loudness, and the 0 can be adjusted as the human hearing level.
 ORLG220 Tutorial: Decibel:
What is it and how to use it???

How to calculate decibel

Sound power level formula:

For example, how many dB SPL is a

sound that is 50 μ Pa?

Therefore we can say: dB SPL = 20 log (50μPa/20μPa)

Sound pressure level: dB SPL = 20 log (2.5 Pa)

* note the 2.5 pressure ratio means that
the applied pressure is 2.5 times stronger
than the reference

dB SPL = 20 (.39794)
The resulting value is in DECI Bel, or dB which is the tenth of a Bel
dB SPL = 7.96
SPL and distance

With r being the distance from source.

Hence pressure decreases in direct proportion to r, if you have a source at twice it’s original distance the
pressure will be halved.

Effectively for every doubling of distance there is 6dB drop in sound pressure level
 ORLG220 Tutorial: Decibel:
What is it and how to use it???

Combining SPL

Hence given two sound sources with sound pressure levels and .

you can add as many sound sources as you want

You can also use this table to make quick calculations

Diff add
0 3.0
1 2.5
2–3 2.0
4 1.5
5–7 1.0
8 – 10 0.5
11 – 15 0.2

To use this table you subtract the smaller value from the larger one, you get the value of the difference,
check in the table and see how much dB you need to add of course to the largest value.
 ORLG220 Tutorial: Decibel:
What is it and how to use it???

Exercises:

1- Calculating sound pressure level: Sound pressure is 0.06 pa what is the sound pressure level?
2- Calculate the sum of using the formula first and then the table
60 B SPL + 55 dB SPL + 53 dB SPL

3- Convert the following decibel values to pressure ratios, and find the value of exerted
sound pressure:
20 dB
- 40 dB
46 dB
 ORLG220 Tutorial: Decibel:
What is it and how to use it???

Answers:
1- 69.54
2- 61.8
3- Pressure ratio is equal to 10 so the applied pressure is 10 times stronger than the ref.
pressure. and the exerted sound pressure value is 0.0002 Pa
4- Pressure ratio is 0.01. The value of exerted pressure is 2x10^-7 Pa. This value is not
strong enough to trigger a vibration of the eardrum
5- Pressure ratio is 199.5. the value of exerted pressure is 0.0039Pa